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Epilepsy Services

I agree absolutely with the hon. Gentleman, which is why the review of the NHS in general is being led by clinicians at every level, by people who work in the service and by patients. The review undertaken in London by my colleague the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, Professor Sir Ara Darzi, and that for the rest of the NHS managed that very successfully. There is no other way of doing it; users and their families, clinicians, from the top dogs, so to speak, right the way through professions allied to medicine, and all of those who work in our good national health service need to feel involved. The hon. Gentleman was kind, again, to mention my specialist interest. Specialist nurses must be brought to the forefront. The deployment of specialist nurses is of particular concern to stakeholders, and the all-party epilepsy group’s report requests an immediate commitment to increase the number of epilepsy specialist nurses to 600. Before I respond to that point, however, I take the opportunity to commend the work of Epilepsy Action, which through the Sapphire nurse scheme is doing sterling work to support the appointment of specialist nurses in hospitals throughout the United Kingdom. I can totally reassure my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley that we support maximising the use of the specialised skills of specialist nurses. Indeed, we are proud that the UK leads the world in the development of specialist nursing roles. We ignore the nurse at our peril!